Sunday, 18 September.  Cloudy, no rain.  Staying with cousin.

Maine Maritime Museum.  Massive.  Extremely well documented displays. It’s mostly about the local shipbuilding history, but that was a huge part of Maine’s history.  Highly recommended.  Nice lobster exhibit.

Had the absolutely best lobster meat I’ve ever had.  Can never be improved, only equaled.  Picked out of the sea 15 minutes before cooking.  Microwaved for seven minutes.  It’s what omnivores do.

Rest of the day reminiscing with cousin.

Maine Maritime Museum. The metal sculpture describes the actual dimensions of the schooner Wyoming, largest wooden schooner ever built.

The second of three very high tech destroyers being built in Bath. $2.5 Billion for this ship.

Before and after pictures. Microwaved. PETA, avert your eyes.

Saturday, 17 September.  Nice weather.

Very long day on highways.  Threat of rain tomorrow, so I hustled down further than planned.  Staying at a cousin’s “mansion” on the water near Portland.

Saw a tidal bore in Moncton, CA.  Incredible.  Agains the laws of nature to see a wavefront coming up the river.  Turbulent water followed.

Worlds largest axe.  The things towns do for notoriety.

580 miles!!  Never more than 10% above the speed limit.

Tidal bore. The river flows left to right. The bore goes upriver. About 5 MPH. Video is better. Look on youtube.

Some leaves are changing color.

Woodstock, Canada.

Friday, 16 September.  Warmer.

Drove through Charlottetown.  The first discussions to create a Canadian Confederation were here 1864, which is a common informational point throughout the town.  A lot of late night partying was involved by all accounts.  (PEI in fact didn’t join the Confederation for six years.  Railroad debt pushed them into it.)  The State House is under renovation.  It’s not a very impressive building, having used imported stones rather the island’s sandstone.  Nearby church is much more handsome (No picture! go figure).  Lots of parks.  Cows Ice Cream shop.  Nice shops, but not too many of them.  The population is only 32,000, which is a quarter of the island’s total.  Real estate is cheap, from a California perspective.

Drive to the ferry was okay.  Once again my $#^%* GPS tried to get me to drive down a gravel road.  Ferry boat (“Confederation”) is huge.  It had pictures of an earlier, much smaller ferry that I believe I was on circa 1963? Motorcycles get on first, off first.  In Truro tonight.  Had perhaps the worst smoked ribs of my life.  Well done, glued to the bone, and spicy hot. Not a good memory of Truro.  But they had a Coors sponsored celebration last night. Best One Horse Town.  Won by number of votes cast.  Hotel host theorizes that the townspeople have nothing else to do but click on a web site.

For days I’ve been struggling with some kind of itinerary to visit Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and maybe Newfoundland.  Concerns are that hotels are expensive, rain is forecast, and I should probably get new tires.  But I’m here, so why not push myself?  The decider arrived last night when I woke up with “Just go home” repeating itself in my head.  So home I’m headed.  Prince Edward Island was always my final destination, so this is not defeat.  “This far and no farther.”

1976. Only other US vehicle I saw on the island. I’ve disliked VW buses for a long time, mostly for their lawn mower engines. But this one had some modifications. Had some pep.

Twenty minutes to offload! A calvary of motorcycles. Thought of the scene from Jaws.

Nice view on departure.

Thursday, 15 September. Clear, windy, cool.

Rested in place.  Intended to be a short day.  Tuesday was hard.  Went only a short ways, but the view was magnificent.  Pounding waves.  A feeling of power and immortality. Not very different than any eastern coastline, but the seas seemed darker.  The water is supposed to be warm actually.  Runoff from the St. Lawrence Seaway.  Surprised that the island is mostly built on sandstone.  I could buy a sandstone t-shirt, “Made with PEI Dirt”.  Found a specific reference that PEI was part of the Appalachian Mountain chain.  I’m within walking distance of where the author of Anne of Green Gables grew up: Lucy Maid Montgomery.  Lots of gables on houses, mostly green.  Her home is part of the National Preserve, along with 25 miles of coastline.  There is actually another book around that describes the real life of a local orphan girl named Ellen, whom Montgomery reportedly admitted was the basis for Anne.  I haven’t fact-checked that claim.

Lunch was at a very popular restaurant by attendance.  There was a line of people waiting for it to open.  Lobster roll.  Sausage bun with lobster meat and seasoning.  Local beer.  One man, on seeing my CA plate, asked “How did you tow it?”  A first.  Another restaurant has two sides; one for normal eating, another dedicated solely to “Lobster Supper”.  “Longest salad bar on the Island”.  I haven’t found a place that has live lobsters swimming around, the source of many a childhood nightmare.  Why am I looking?

Lots of “Closed for the Season” signs.  Cavendish is a popular resort area on the Island. Many golf courses and children’s parks.

Called it a day at about 3.  I’m not overly tired, but playing it safe.

The bun had a flavor to it. Lots of lobster!!

The lighthouse is now a cottage.

Wednesday, 14 September.  Threat of rain.

The plan was to make a quick ride to Prince Edward Island to beat approaching rain.  A short detour to the Bay of Fundy National Park.  The Park was shrouded in fog and cold.  It was simpler than I remember and I drove its length quickly.  Not much of a view.  The small town of Alma was also disappointing.  Unfortunately I’d arrived just at high tide, so the ocean was going nowhere.  I got the sense that, as with Alaska in May, there was a definite tourist season that I was missing.

The drive from Alma seemed to promise nothing exciting, but by following a few signs I struck gold.  Tasted blueberry wine.  The “unoaked” brand was best.  We had a good discussion about the horrible avocado wine I tried in southern Florida.

Cape Enrage was true to its name.  The tide was going out and the waves just seemed to be stationary.  It gave the impression that something was wrong in the world.  The overcast skies and very strong winds gave it a realistic tone of anger.  A tiny lighthouse that only blinked “Danger” and a small but different gift shop. Ziplines!  The drive in and out had great views of flat flood plains bordered by high hills.

Further on was a well maintained memorial of an old and now nonexistent shipyard.  They’d built the outline of a old ship.  It was difficult to imagine a shipyard in the windswept river/tidal pool.  A flood control dike changed the terrain.

The rest of the drive was fast and unspectacular, though a high crosswind made it a little too exciting and I was getting hit by little bits of rain.  The “Confederation” Bridge to Prince Edward Island is long and only two lanes, but fortunately the wind was from behind.  $17 toll charge, which I guess they’ll mail to me. I had to drive across the island to reach my lodging.  The island produces 25% of all potatoes in Canada.  The smell was not unlike Iowa’s.  Fertilizer.

Over two years ago this crazy idea to touch four corners of the continent on a motorcycle formed in my head.  Success, sort of.  I’ve still got to get home.

Odd. Seems to honor first Canadian woman to get a Captain’s license. Takes a bit to get to that point.

Blueberry wine. No grapes used. Bought a bottle.

The view from Waterside Winery.

Interesting fake chimney.

Not a very helpful warning.

It looks like a ship. . .

. . . But it’s not.

The Petitcodiac River experiences a “Bore” twice a day. A tidal surge, 8 MPH and 3 feet high. Its nickname is The Chocolate River.

Tuesday, 13 September.  Beautiful day!

The first half of today’s ride was full of towns, which slowed me down substantially.  The second half was full of trees, which touched on boring.  There was a little traffic to distract me.  Also a lot of road repairs all day.  At least six instances of one-lane traffic.

Discovered Ed Muskie’s hometown of Rumford with an appropriate memorial.  They also have a statue of Paul Bunyan and his bull “Blue”.  What would have been nice waterfalls is now mostly a hydroelectric plant though they have worked to pretty up the view.  The town unfortunately also has a paper mill.  But it’s in a pretty valley that appears to offer lots of recreational options.

Bangor has a wonderful Land Transportation Museum.  I could have spent hours in it.  An entire row of old snowplows that looked like something out of a Mad Max movie.  Sometimes a claim to fame is just a little lacking in substance: The Museum notes that it’s next to the only “perfect” cloverleaf interchange in Maine.

Getting into Canada was odd.  The entry point brings you in facing west.  There is absolutely no activity on the American side, which I didn’t expect.  Failed to get money, reserve a hotel room or fill up my tank before entering.  Lost cellular service (I’m not paying Verizon $10 a day!).   Had to find a McDonalds or other establishment.  Then had to drive an extra hour east to get a properly priced hotel.  Arrived in the dark, which I try to avoid (fear of moose, etc.).

This looks just like the statues I remember from Old Forge, NY!

I can imagine the warning being on a bathroom door.

I always thought that Ed Muskie was too nice a guy to be a politician. His hometown certainly liked him.

Monday, 12 September

Short distance, much seen.  Began with Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. Tour was more about social change than ice cream, but it was okay. Got a tasting.  The have a “graveyard” of discontinued flavors. The production room we viewed had about 6 employees, but the process is so automated I don’t know what they did.  One danced for us.

Vermont’s state house in Montpelier is generally considered to be one of the best. I can agree. Blends into the hillside nicely and isn’t outlandishly large. It’s pretty much wide open to visitors too. I kept thinking I had walked too far into the building. At one point of walking around I remembered that I’d actually met a governor of Vermont (Hoff). I’d even gotten his autograph.  I asked a guide about him and she showed me his portrait. She was impressed by my recollection and therefore gave me a personal tour. It was well worth the visit. (Vermont’s museum is unfortunately closed on Monday.)

Barre, VT is a pretty little town, but limited parking.  A really nice statue.  There is another somewhere in town that’s a little famous, but I didn’t find it.

Route 302 is a very pretty drive. Unfortunately, I set a waypoint for Bath, NH, and Honda’s stupid GPS somehow thought the town’s center was five miles down a dirt road.  Wasted 20 minutes. However, taking the road caused me to drive through a covered bridge, so it was worth it.

The White Mountains National Forest is a fun and majestic ride. It’ll be prettier when leaves change colors.  Had thoughts of driving up Mt. Washington, but a mile of gravel and 25 MPH winds discouraged me. Besides, at 6,244 feet, it’s well below the highest elevation I’ve driven. Amazingly, the first car to reach the top was a Stanley Steamer in 1899.

Not a lot of miles driven, but the movement was mostly eastward.

Ben’s, or Jerry’s, Tesla.

The factory and gift store are filled with left leaning testaments.

Vermont’s very pretty state house.

Governor Hoff, 1963-69. first Democrat elected since 1853. Met him late one night as a child. I think I was in pajamas!

War Memorial in Barre. Created in 1927. Looks new. Barre is the self-proclaimed capital of granite.

War Memorial in Bath.

The first covered bridge. Couldn’t drive across.

The second covered bridge, which I did cross. The fine is less for driving “your team” faster than a person can walk.

Just a fountain on the side of the road in Bartlett. No explanation.

Scary stuff.

Hotel and mountain.

The White Mountain roadway.

Haverton War Memorial.

Sunday, 11 September.

Some riding but with little forward progress.  Visited some of the roads familiar to my childhood.  Old Forge was a traditional stop after camping.  Ice cream or late dinner.  Had Mountain Dew for the first time.  It’s now a much bigger town with an odd hardware store.  There’s a “Front Door” cafe with a “Back Door” Bar.  The amusement park Enchanted Forest, which once had a large statue of Paul Bunyan, is now a waterpark.  But in spite of it’s improvements, it’s still the start of potentially hundreds of miles of canoe trails.  1st through 8th Lakes, Forked Lake, Long Lake, etc.  A pretty ride.

There are a lot of lakes.  Windy day.  Slow cars.  Curvy roads.  Drove through Lake Placid with its legacy of two Olympics.  Drove over Ausable Chasm, which I (still) have not visited.  Took ferry across Lake Champlain with four GS BMW motorcycles traveling from Michigan.

Saturday, 10 September.  No Adventure.  Quiet day.

Friday, 9 September.  Staying with Curt.  He has a really great drone.  Got plans to do local documentaries with it.  Should be interesting.